There are a few housekeeping details – mostly having to do with self- and site-promotion – that have been waiting to get swept up so here they are, in order of most exciting.
Well, okay, maybe the most exciting and the most necessary. Please take a few minutes to fill out our reader survey. As expected, this site leads all other political websites in attracting women – a whopping 38 percent of you, so far, pretty much double the Big Boys again this year. To make sure the ad guys know who’s reading, however, we need a better, more statistically viable sample. So please take the time – regardless of your gender – to lend a hand and answer some questions. (This survey is no longer active.) As always, information is confidential. It’s not sold or bartered with third-parties for any reason.
Speaking of women on line: Blogher, the conference is real, live and going to happen.

The idea of gathering women writers from around the web – which grew out of a discussion on this and other sites – has taken root and prospered thanks to the hard work of Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort, Jory des Jardins and Purvi Shah. The conference will be on July 30 in Santa Clara, CA. and we’re making every effort to help folks who need financial assistance with plane fares, etc. You can get details – which will certainly become richer as the day nears – on the site. And yeah, I do think they’ve gotten me to agree to speak.
I’m also scheduled to do a little live-and-in-person work for my pals at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York on May 16. Details about the one-day series of seminars are here.
Right now, it looks like I’ll be joining some of the Big Boy bloggers Josh Marshall, Hugh Hewitt and Markos Moulitsas as well as PDF contributing editor Chris Raab for a chat about how bloggers can and do shape political agendas. Any of you out there with thoughts or comments on this topic, please email your suggestions to mailbox-at-chrisnolan.com. This is a big topic and I’d like us to cover some new ground; your ideas will certainly help.
For those of you wondering what’s going on behind the magic curtain here at Politics From Left to Right (and yes, of course we have a magic curtain…) there’s a nice piece about some of what I’m doing up at the On-Line Journalism Review. Mark Glaser took a look at different business models on offer for those of us working on the web. Politics from Left to Right – which is growing, you just can’t see it yet – is right up there with Naughty Nicky Denton’s Gawker empire, Jason Calacanis’ Weblogs Inc. and Rafat Ali’s PaidContent.org. Yipeeee!
Glaser isn’t giving the best example when he talks about how I’ve repurposed stuff here on the site and defined that as “syndication.” I have something a bit different in mind for the future. But, as I’ve said here for the past two weeks, it’s a look at how websites like this can work with larger outlets, one I hope we can prove out.
One ray of hope in this department: The very interesting speech Rupert Murdoch has given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Jeff Jarvis has some excerpts. If you’re interested in this business, you should read what he has to say. Sad to say, no one in the traditional news business is going to listen to Murdoch — they don’t want to be associated with “that kind” of journalism — you can almost count on that. But as far I can tell, what Murdoch’s saying about where his readers (you) are coming (here) needs to be said.UPDATE: Via Dan Gillmor who offers more of the snottiness press folks have toward Murdoch, there’s a full text of his ASNE remarks up at News Corp’s site.